The Miracles of Luang Phor Koon

The Miracles of Luang Phor Koon

When I first encountered Thai Buddhism slightly over a decade ago, I was told that Luang Phor Koon was the most revered living monk across majority of the provinces. At that time, I couldn't really understand - why was LP Koon so popular? Even today, I still don't know why. 

Nevertheless, there are many accounts of miracles attributed to LP Koon, like the one I shared a few months back when a girl holding his rian jumped out of a burning factory. 

Personally, I know a Singaporean who went for temporary ordination and stayed with LP Koon at Wat Banrai when he was a youth. He assured me that LP Koon did indeed possess magical powers. There was a time when LP Koon happened to bless some nammon (holy water) and walked away. Being curious, he tried to pour out the holy water but found that even when he turned the bottle upside down, the water did not flow out at all. This is often what happens when you try to fool around with nammon blessed by a monk.

Once there was a drought in Korat, which severely affected the livelihood of the farmers and badly inconvenienced the residents living at Dan Khun Thot District, because if it continued any further, there would soon not be any water for them to drink at all. Many public agencies tried various methods to resolve the drought but to no avail - even the water levels in the Lam Chiang Krai Reservoir was so low that it seemed that it would soon evaporate to reveal dry land.

The local politicians were at a loss of what to do. Until one of them had a bright idea – he would go to Luang Phor Koon and ask for his parami to tide through this crisis. After all, LP Koon was the most revered monk in Nakhon Ratchasima province, who else could resolve this problem but him? So he went to LP Koon to consult him on what to do. 

LP Koon instructed him, “Take this and pour it into the dam”. After saying that, he picked up a plastic bottle and handed it over to the politician. The politician did not question LP Koon and did what he was told. So he took the liquid given by LP Koon to him and poured it into the reservoir. 

In no more than three days, a miracle happened. The water levels in the reservoir started to rise instead of fall, until the water level actually returned to its original level. The volume of water would be able to tide the citizens over this particular crisis. This made the politician very curious as to what could be the powerful liquid that LP Koon gave him, and he went back to LP Koon to pay his respects and give thanks. 

After that, he couldn’t resist asking, “Luang Phor, what was that supremely power and sacred liquid that you gave me?”

Luang Phor Koon replied with a laugh, “Just my urine.”

Story of Luang Phor Koon

Story of Luang Phor Koon

Revered Venerable Senior Mahathera Phra Thep Wittayakom, better known to the locals as Luang Phor Koon, is a household name in the province of Korat and beyond. There is no Buddhist family that has not heard of Luang Phor's name. Luang Phor is like a big umbrella who provides cool shade for everyone, building temples, schools, hospitals, infrastructure and the like for the good of the Thai people and the Buddha Sasana. 

After the girl jumped out of a flaming building only clutching the rian of LP Koon and surviving without a scratch, hundreds of thousands of people have since rushed to the temple to get blessed by Luang Phor. So much so that even the gravel path leading to Wat Ban Rai has been replaced with an asphalt concrete road. 

Luang Phor Koon had a unique way of blessing people. He would gently tap their heads with his stick. Overseas Chinese devotees from Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Taiwan etc. would travel for thousands of kilometres just to get their head knocked by Luang Phor. There was a famous story of one Thai family who lived in the distant rural provinces who came all the way to get blessed by Luang Phor Koon. 

Among them was a tall, young lady about the age of 20, who was behaving erratically. But the family just thought that she was suffering from some mental imbalance and she had been visiting the psychiatrist for some time already, always taking her medication and visiting the doctor on time, so her condition was considered under control. One day the father just thought it would be auspicious to get the whole family to Wat Ban Rai to make merit and see Luang Phor. 

That day, Luang Phor Koon as usual, went about his daily routine knocking people's heads. For some people, they felt that they had very bad luck, so they asked Luang Phor to knock their heads harder. Some people were scared of pain so they asked Luang Phor to just tap their heads lightly. Luang Phor obliged as requested by his devotees. 

So everyone was shocked when he came up to that girl, stared at her face for a moment, and gave her head a big whack with his stick while shouting "You there, get out of here now! Go wherever you need to go!" 

The girl immediately lost consciousness. 

When she came to, she looked different from before and acted and behaved with proper respect. Her parents immediately kneeled before Luang Phor Koon to thank him with tears in their eyes, because they just realised their mistake. Their daughter was not suffering from a mental illness, she was affected by dark magic and spirits. 

Her father begged some holy water from Luang Phor Koon to take home for his daughter to shower with and drink, and slowly even the last of the symptoms disappeared. This family remained every grateful to the great kindness and power of Luang Phor Koon Parisuttho.